Babbo

I had a superb lunch today at Babbo - babbo means daddy in Italian, and with the wall of family photos and charming staff, it did have a homely feel.

First, we tried a special cheese made by a family of cheesemakers in Italy to the specifications of head chef Carlo Scotto. It's a 50:50 mix of cow and sheep milk so had an aspect of that crunch and tang characteristic of parmesan but also an interesting sheepiness (like pecorino) and subtle overtone of truffle.

I started with seared scallops, elegantly prepared with a delicious browning, served with a (slightly weird) purple cauliflower puree, piquant beetroot and very pretty bows of home-made pasta.

I loved the squid-ink black tagliatelle which was tossed with spicy crab meat. When I asked Carlo Scotto how to reproduce it at home, he said I should practise every day: make the pasta, get the best olive oil available, and hand-pick the meat from the best crab available - maybe one day!

For dessert, I really liked the burrata which was delicately encased in milk skin, and served with a strawberry sauce and fruit. The creamy cheese went very well with the fresh fruit and tangy sauce. I couldn't resist trying the profiteroles too - a yummy and decadent treat!

Mozzarella & more

Last Friday, I went to check out Mozzarella & more on King's Road, the latest opening from 'Made in Italy', a family-run group sharing their love for southern-Italian cuisine. The restaurant was made up to look like a traditional trattoria, with their fresh fish proudly displayed in the window and their vegetables and meats hanging over a deli counter filled with delicious-looking food. It was very popular, with a good buzz of people, and the charming staff made for a great atmosphere.

I was pleased to have some proper olives, boquerones and good bread to whet my appetite, before tucking into an amazing platter of mozzarella, burrata, ricotta, caponata, artichokes and Parma ham. The cheeses are made locally, at a kitchen in Battersea, so they were wonderfully fresh - I loved the creamy burrata especially. The bread was great topped with caponata and rich ricotta, or simply dipped in olive oil and balsamic.

Crispy prawns and squid were well done, with a nice, light batter and a chilli mayo, but I wasn't so keen on crunching through the prawn shell.

The highlight of the meal were ravioli stuffed with crab and Amalfi lemon ricotta - the subtle lemon aroma really complimented the fresh Devon crab meat. They were served with a beautiful cherry tomato sauce and fennel for a nice crunch of texture.

Dessert was a tough choice, with a mouth-watering array of cakes and puddings - a different selection every day, depending on what the chef felt like making! I went for the 'caprese al limon', a fantastic lemon cake with a distinct almond flavour and soft spongy texture - very good.

Everything on the menu sounded tasty, so I hope to go back try some more of their homemade pasta, local cheese and fresh fish. Delizioso!

Sticks'N'Sushi

Last night, I went to Sticks'N'Sushi to try out their re-designed menu. The set plates are now humorously split into sections ranging from Economy Class through Business and First Class to Private Jet, with funny sarcastic comments - nevertheless, jokes aside, all of the food looks stunning and it's clear that everyone gets the same charming service.

We started with iras-shai (or 'welcome' in Japanese), which was like a Japanese/Danish take on mezze: edamame hummus was wonderfully refreshing atop wafer-thin black bread; Danish cheese was combined with seaweed to produce a crispy and very moreish snack; a sweet and salty miso dip accompanied yasai (vegetable) sticks. It's beautifully simple but so delicious, just like the tomato salad which although modest-looking turned out to be a real delight with a great dressing which included soy sauce, ginger and spring onion.

The sushi was very good too. We had traditional gunkan (battleship), a special type of nigiri with a nori perimeter which allows loose ingredients such as roe to be included in the sushi. The halibut was excellent, fresh-tasting and delicate, but my favourite was the spicy tuna - not too spicy, with the interesting added flavour of quail egg yolk which broke as it was eaten, and black tobiko for a balance of texture.

The 'coal crab' maki looked really cool, with black rice and towering tempura of softshell crab. The batter on the crab was perhaps too thick and crunchy, but with soft avocado and a delicious spicy sauce, still made for some great sushi.

We finished with sea bass yakitori which was highly impressive. No messing about with unnecessarily complicated sauces, these were served with seasalt and lime, allowing the full taste of the fish to come through. Complimented by the smoky flavour and crisp skin from the coal grill, these were divine.

Yet again I was very pleased with my meal at Sticks'N'Sushi, and hope to return soon!

Bird of Smithfield

Last night I went to Bird of Smithfield, the new restaurant just a stone's throw from the famous meat market, started by Alan Bird, veteran of The Ivy. On my visit, it was still almost a building site in parts, but despite the odd wire dangling like tentacles from the ceiling, the restaurant was already looking stylish, with armchairs surrounding the bar and interesting paintings around the dining tables on the cosy restaurant floor.

Everything on the menu sounded delicious, and although I was tempted by the treacle cured salmon or a fresh salad with goat's cheese, I couldn't resist the Dorset crab which came with fantastic crispy thin slices of bread. The rich mayonnaisey dressing covered delicate crab meat and fresh avocado - I found myself asking for more bread to enjoy every last morsel of this creamy delight! My mum's asparagus were cooked to perfection, with a superb hollandaise.

Mains was a tough decision too, although I was very happy with my slip sole, served with brown shrimp and samphire. The texture of the fish was great, and the intense flavours brought about in combination with the almost earthy shrimp and salty samphire transported me to the coast. With such a rich dish, I struggled to finish the extremely generous portion - one fillet would have sufficed for me! I would have preferred the triple-cooked chips to be much more crispy (admittedly my standards based on Heston's Hind's Head are high), but they were wonderfully fluffy inside.

The chocolate pot, made with Original Beans' Cru Virunga, was a hit, topped with a powerful salted caramel cream, and hiding a little surprise of popping candy.

Having not had trifle for a long time, I was mightily impressed by the rhubarb trifle with 'Bird's Custard': decadent, but refined - I'll be returning to Bird of Smithfield, if just for some more scrumptious desserts!

TOTA

I recently checked out TOTA, a restaurant which is very local to me, in Tooting Broadway. The head chef and owner, Gary Doherty, has cooked on cruise ships all around the world and as a private chef, but has decided to bring his skills to South London and open his own restaurant!

There was a lot on the menu that appealed to me, but in the end I opted to start with some butternut squash ravioli. The pasta was very good, with a flavoursome filling and I liked the accompanying goats' curd and fresh tomatoes but I felt that the pasta was slightly too al dente and the dish was a little oily.

I also managed to taste the crab cakes which my mum chose. They were very good, bursting full of crab meat, and with a crisp finish.

For mains, I couldn't resist a wild mushroom risotto. It was certainly intense, with a penetrating truffle aroma and rich sauce. Like the pasta, I found it too oily, although it was still delicious!

I finished off the very enjoyable meal with a decadent berry pavlova, creamy and fruity with an excellent light meringue.

Dinner - Heston Blumenthal

I've been begging my mum for ages to take me to Dinner, Heston's latest restaurant which focuses on British dishes that have been inspired by cuisine and food concepts originally dating from the 19th or even the 16th century. Finally, as an end-of-Christmas-holidays-back-to-school-and-exams-treat, we went for lunch today!

It was a wonderful setting in the very grand Mandarin Oriental Hotel, but once I entered the restaurant, it could only be Heston: a floating pineapple inset into the wall above the reception, and jelly-mould-shaped lights were pretty wacky, but it was great to be able to see directly into the kitchen from our table (even if that did mean seeing the pigs' ears being prepared as we awaited our dessert!).

The humorously named "Green Goblin" cocktail that I tried had a great fresh aroma, made with lychee and kiwi juice and a touch of maple syrup for an uplifting sweetness.

To start, I had a lemon salad (supposedly influenced by a recipe from c.1730) with goat's curd, buckler sorrel and raisins. I really liked the pickled lemon segments, which had the distinctive sour taste of lemon (something I love - when people serve lemon slices with fish, I tend to suck the lemon dry while no one's looking!) and a tangy bite from the sliver of rind that contrasted well with the goat's curd in both flavour and texture. The dish looked lovely with different coloured leaves drifting about making it almost resemble a garden floor.

I then tried what seemed like a bizarre concoction to me: a crab 'brioche', made with crab-infused butter and custard, lending it a soft bread-like texture and a subtle flavour of crab. It was actually very tasty, served with a white crab meat mayonnaise and a delicious, clean flavoured cucumber ketchup.

For mains, I had cured salmon (c.1670). The fish was very delicate, and the leaves of flesh peeled away pleasingly. The top of the salmon was caramelised, which added a nice crunch and barbecue-like flavour to the fish. The artichokes were tasty (even though I'm not a big fan of them) although I found the beetroot a little hard. Nonetheless, the kidney-bean-coloured beetroot sauce was very flavoursome, with a great vinegar kick.

For dessert I had an indulgently buttery sweet 'loaf' ( c.1630 ) made from orange, which was covered in crispy caramel that added a lovely sweetness, but had a soft, spongy inside which was very orangey and yummy. The mandarin and thyme sorbet was delicious, with a not-too-strong acidity and clean finish. 

It was a fantastic lunch, with very friendly and talkative staff, who really knew the dishes inside-out and seemed to take a real pleasure in presenting them in all their glory. And trust me, they deserve that glory!